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While you were sleeping: Quake in Ecuador, new gender policy in China

The new gender policy announced in China impacts what questions can be asked in job interviews and on job ads or at job fairs like this one. In China, some employers have still been advertising jobs for men only. Photo: STR

Montreal Gazette

Published: February 22, 2019 - 8:23 AM

Good morning. Here’s a roundup of news from the overnight world desk. More news anytime at montrealgazette.com.

Powerful 7.5-magnitude quake hits southern Ecuador: A very powerful magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck southern Ecuador in the early hours of Friday close to the country’s border with Peru, although no immediate reports of possible casualties or damage were available. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake happened at 10:17 GMT 115 kilometres southeast of the town of Palora, in the Morona Santiago province, at a depth of 132 kilometres. The quake was felt in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito, and the coastal city of Guayaquil. Peru’s official geophysics institute said it registered two aftershocks of 6.06 and 6.6 magnitude in the 30 minutes that followed the first tremor. Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno said on his official Twitter account that “preliminary reports of the quakes near Macas (the provincial capital of Morona Santiago) don’t show major damage.” The quakes, he wrote, “were felt all over the country.” A 7.8-magnitude earthquake that shook a central area of the Ecuadorean coast on April 16, 2016, killed more than 700 people, destroyed hundreds of houses and caused more than $3 billion of losses.

China’s new policy against gender bias meets fans, sceptics: China has announced new measures against gender discrimination in Chinese workplaces that forbid employers from asking potential female hires questions such as if they are married or have children. At some companies in China, the answers to these questions can be disqualifying. Other firms are explicit in their job postings that they are looking only for men. Many welcomed the government notice, published Thursday, which forbids companies and recruitment agencies from taking certain discriminatory actions against female employees and job candidates. But female workers and analysts alike were skeptical that such measures could be strictly enforced. “A notice is better than nothing,” said Li Yinhe, a prominent Chinese sociologist on sex and family issues. “Although (the notice) might not be that useful in practice, at least it states the issues in explicit terms,” Li said. “Companies won’t be as blatant as they were before.” While gender discrimination in hiring is already banned by Chinese labour laws, the notice appears to target specific behaviours that have made news in recent years. Last April, Human Rights Watch published a report that revealed that Chinese job advertisements were rife with gender discrimination.

Church of England says Sunday services no longer mandatory: The Church of England has acknowledged the reality of shrinking congregations and overworked priests and lifted a 400-year-old rule requiring that all churches hold services every Sunday. Canon law dating from 1603 required priests to hold morning and evening prayers and a communion service each Sunday in every church they oversaw. But after decades of declining attendance, many priests are now responsible for multiple churches, especially in rural areas. Until now, they have needed permission from a bishop not to hold Sunday services in each church. The change was approved Thursday at a meeting of the church’s governing Synod. Bishop of Willesden Pete Broadbent, who proposed the change, said it “just changes the rules to make it easier for people to do what they’re already doing. It stops the bureaucracy.”